Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) was a French-born American historian of ideas and cultural history who was also known as a philosopher of education. Educated at Columbia University, he taught history there from 1928, became Seth Low Professor of History, and served as Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of Faculties and Provost from 1955 to 1968. With the critic Lionel Trilling he taught Columbia's well-known Great Books course. His book Teacher in America (1945) influenced the training of schoolteachers in the United States, and The House of Intellect shaped debate about culture and education. He published more than forty books, including From Dawn to Decadence at age ninety-three, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.